So here is the speaker panel work in progress for a Mega Man. I liked the suggested slot design, but It figured since I'm departing away from that style with Duck Tales, I might as well try something new, push it ,and challenge myself by trying to use the dimensional 8 bit "1 UP" Mega Man face. It was really tricky to do because of all the drilling, which messed up the back of the panel so I had to do a lot of repair work. Here it has two coats of primer, it still needs sanding and a bit more touch up to smooth it out more.

Also, I found this cool image while searching for E tank art references. I thought one of the coasters would be a perfect inspiration for a bezel starting point. I like the two on the left the best. Since its winter now, I'd like to spend the next five months getting the artwork sorted out and complete before I even thinking about cutting wood.

As far as messing up the back of the panel, I've had good luck clamping a backer board on before drilling and the technique I use is to reduce pressure about 3/4 of the way through and let the drill do the work and not force it through. Even with that, it's not always perfect, but it greatly reduced the blowouts I was getting.

Thanks for the tip, sir! I will try that in the future. Yeah, I've never had it happen that bad but I just assumed it was because of the large amount of drilling I was doing in such a small area. I did clamp it down to another piece of wood, drilled pilot holes, then drilled in reverse with the bigger bit....but still it was pretty messy. I just ended up bondo ing the back of the wood, then cleaning up most of the slots with a Dremel and drill the holes again. A CNC machine sure would have been nice. Haha.

I've spent the last month vectoring images for MM. I pretty much done, so I can start designing. I came up with this marquee tonight. I want the artwork to be prodominately dark blue, to contrast the lighter blue paint job and match the dark blue t-molding.

Also, I used "Nintendo" in the marquee.....as opposed to capcom....which I did vector a logo for. I just liked Nintendo better.....but what do you guys think? Should I switch it...does it really matter? I don't really care but Any MM purists gonna be all, "but it's not a nintendo game!" Haha

Also, as far as theme. Man, I really like Mega Man 2....widely considered the best MM game out of the series. however, I'm using all Mega Man 1 artwork for this cabinet. I tried to find a Image for Mega Man that was closest to the tiny black and white Mega Man in the original NES instruction manual....so it fits in with the rest of the artwork from that time. if you remember, the original NES MM box art had some weird space dude on the artwork....not gonna use that.

I used the grid from the NES box art, which I will use with thr CPO and bezel as well. I thought it would be cool to throw a pink laser beam across it, to mimic MMs gun. i was thinking of lighting the underside of the cabinet with a pink LED light as well.

Also, on Christmas I downloaded Street Fighter X Mega Man.....omg (I never use omg, but this game deserves it) what a badass game! We spent most of the day trying to beat it....and now I really want to build a cabinet for it! Ha. It's an exe file...so I might end up throwing it in this cabinet.

I spent the night designing two rough drafts for the MM bezel. With MM, I am still doing s "donkey kong style" of artwork....where the corners have main characters and then minor scenes or characters along the borders. When I do Duck Tales, I want to get away from that....and make the art more like Popeye, DK JR, DK3, etc....where the bezel and CPO art are not contained within a structured design.

Here was my first design....kinda busy....but uses the boxes for all the bosses like in the game menu. Sorry for the usual crappy art pics...but you get the idea.

Here is my second design....I like this one more because I get to see the bosses full bodies...and a lot more negative space. I may shrink/move around the secondary bosses....may have a slight hierarchy issue. Also, I may get rid of the logo on the bottom and replace it with something else....like MM shooting at something. Seems kinda redundant. May or may not incorporate blue chrome where the light blue artwork is....I was planning on it....but now I'm thinking I may just let it stand on its own.

Hmmmm....interesting. I can see why you guys prefer that one...tough call. I'll play around with both and see what I can do.

I like the first one as well....but the only thing I'm thinking about is losing to much of the dark blue with that design. Maybe I change the sub bosses box colors...or the darken the backgrounds in the to differentiate/contrast them from the four corners...

Hmmmm....interesting. I can see why you guys prefer that one...tough call. I'll play around with both and see what I can do.

I like the first one as well....but the only thing I'm thinking about is losing to much of the dark blue with that design. Maybe I change the sub bosses box colors...or the darken the backgrounds in the to differentiate/contrast them from the four corners...

Thanks for the input!

I actually like the second one better, but agree with all about the logo at the bottom.

Sorry dudes, Ive already said it a million times I'm the worst computer user ever. I'd rather be up and about doing something hands on.....then click, click, clicking away. The less clicking in my life, the happier I am....so again...sorry. However when I do design proofs professionally, know I always make jpgs. Just lazy for my friends here, I guess.

---my bottom--- was literally numb from sitting for hours working on this art. I don't know how you IT/computer genius guys do it. Better men than me.

I reduced the size of the mini bosses, eliminated the logo on the bottom....I would eventually replace it with something else. I like this design a lot....but I felt like its missing something...like uniqueness...and I really want to incorporate an embossed look again with this cab.

I had a new idea tonight for a third design while running on the treadmill....and I think Im leaning heavily towards it. In the begining I wanted to capture the mechanical aspect of the robots...I thought about using gears or soemthing in the artwork, but then I thought about using PCB traces. I thought it would look really cool cut out of blue embossed chrome foil...so I came up with this third design tonight. I like it because I can use the trace elements on the CPO as well for the buttons.

Ime liking the PCB design Would look ace with the foil you mentioned.I think It would be better putting the boss on the bottom on the left (2 on each side) and the having a instruction card or something at the bottom though.

Ime liking the PCB design Would look ace with the foil you mentioned.I think It would be better putting the boss on the bottom on the left (2 on each side) and the having a instruction card or something at the bottom though.

Looking at it now I can see the left and bottom traces are smooshed a bit more than I'd like. I will spread those out more...I think I need to flip Fireman around too...so he's facing inwards.

I see what you are saying about having two bosses on the left. I can't really do an instruction card on the bottom of the bezel tho because I'll have an instruction card on the CPO as well as below the bezel above the CPO, the standard Nintendo placements. I will think about your sugestions...maybe I can find something else in the bottom center....I just wanted to differenciate this bezel from my LOZ build...where I put the triforce in the center. Open to suggestions.

Thought about putting Dr. Wiley's castle in the center bottom of the top design....but that wouldn't work with the PCB design i don't think.

Oh, okay. No, the Mega Man grill panel is wood, I just primed it already.

You know, Now that you mention it when I made my fix it Felix I used a piece of pine lumber for the speaker grill and had essentially no blowout on the backside. I got away from using that wood because I read it was more unstable as far as expansion and contraction than the plywood. But there was never an issue with it once it was done. I'll keep that in mind for the next one....and try switching woods.

Absolutely love it. I am looking forward to seeing further progress. The artwork looks great so far. I am partial to Mega Man 2 so would have gone that direction though. This might be a bit too much but what about adding a topper (like pinball machines might have) or even some plastic "toys", also like some pins have. Maybe blue etched and lit plexi, multiple layers on the top side of the machine or even as the marquee. Behind the bezel, maybe something like this or smaller and lit up with blue LEDs or something when the game is turned on: https://youtu.be/uhxADc8Tto4?t=2m43s

Thanks to Sokignano for giving me a great starting point for the instruction card. Its about 98% there....I need to make some minor tweeks like move the "robots" line over a bit to the left in the title heading. Add an exclamation point after "press the jump button" and maybe mess with the type spacing. Im about 75% done with the CPO as well. Hope to get a finished proof by tomorrow.

Absolutely love it. I am looking forward to seeing further progress. The artwork looks great so far. I am partial to Mega Man 2 so would have gone that direction though. This might be a bit too much but what about adding a topper (like pinball machines might have) or even some plastic "toys", also like some pins have. Maybe blue etched and lit plexi, multiple layers on the top side of the machine or even as the marquee. Behind the bezel, maybe something like this or smaller and lit up with blue LEDs or something when the game is turned on: https://youtu.be/uhxADc8Tto4?t=2m43s

That helmet is awesome! I gotta get one....for a topper, like you said. Yeah,I was thinking of adding pink LED lighting somewhere. Sokignano suggested making it pulse to the sounds of the game....not sure of how to go about that....but I'd like to try.

Yeah, I get it about Mega Man 2. I felt that I had to start at the beginning though...I like the bosses better in two as well. However, this will be a Mega Man multi so I'll at least get to play the others.

Ya know, if you go to your very first post in the thread, Wyo, and edit it...you can change the title and then I won't get all excited and get the Duck Tales theme stuck in my head. Freakin earworm for dayz bro. I mean, unless duck tales is happening. is it happening. I want ducktales!

Ya know, if you go to your very first post in the thread, Wyo, and edit it...you can change the title and then I won't get all excited and get the Duck Tales theme stuck in my head. Freakin earworm for dayz bro. I mean, unless duck tales is happening. is it happening. I want ducktales!

Megaman art is looking good btw, I like the approach.

Hahaha. sorry man. There is some Duck Tales happening on this thread....well, just the speaker panel. Ha. I switched it around to reflect MM being worked on first.

As soon as I get the artwork squared away for MM (should be done next week, yes including sideart) I'm gonna start vectoring and designing Duck Tales. And yeah, I put the "woo hoo" in the title for a reason. It's just So catchy!